The present invention relates to the art of manufacture of components used in dental implant systems and, more particularly, to a method of manufacture of a dental abutment usable in combination with a dental implant.
One of the difficulties associated with the practice of implant dentistry is that of proper alignment of the dental abutment (the element to which the dental prosthesis is attached) to the dental implant which has been surgically embedded within the jaw, maxilla, or mandible of the patient. More particularly, it is necessary, to assure optimal coupling between the abutment and the implant, to employ a standard parameter of tightening or torquing of the coupling member of the abutment relative to the he coupling recess of the implant. That is, in the absence of a standard torquing parameter, the possibility of under- or-over rotation of the threaded interface between the abutment and the implant exists. The consequences thereof are apparent to one of skill in the art of implant dentistry, namely, that of a misalignment, even if microscopic, between the abutment and the implant and, thereby, a misalignment, or potential therefore between the dental prosthesis (which is associated with the abutment) and the implant. In such an event the mandible of the patient and the prosthesis may not operate in a synchronous or optional fashion and the life cycle of the prosthesis will be affected.
The instant invention presents a solution to the problem of in situ alignment of the abutment with the implant thru a novel method of manufacture of the abutment in a manner which assures that the implant dentist cannot misalign the abutment with the implant during an implant procedure.
There does not, to the knowledge of the inventor, exist any applicable prior art within the area of either implant dentistry or dentistry in general. Any art which, thereby, may exist in the general industrial arts is believed to be non-analogous to the invention as set forth herein.